Marriage Today
What is the difference between courting and dating?
Briefly, courting is dating with a purpose, and that's marriage. It isn't dating just to play the field or have fun. Usually the guy asks the parent(s) for permission to court the daughter. So while you're "dating" so to speak, you're serious about it and you're learning whether the person is marriage material. And from people I know, the courting process doesn't last years and years like some dating relationships can. At some point you fish or cut bait.
The boys have to spend time around the girls parents and the parents get to know each other before they're allowed to go out anywhere on their own. That's part of it.
My friends attitude is he wouldn't let some 18 year old kid he didn't know take off with his pickup for a few hours. He's sure not letting him "borrow his daughter."
It is time for us to pull apart the institution of marriage from the definition of a legal union.
Marriage should be determined by the church, whatever church you belong to. Some religions agree to same-sex marriages, others do not.
On the other hand, the state should not meddle with the definition of marriage, but focus instead on determining the legality and requirements of civil unions.
Marriage -- and the relationship between partners and their God -- should be defined by the church.
Civil unions and their legalities should be defined by the state.
It would breach the idea of freedom of religion to force a priest or pastor who does not believe in same-sex marriage to perform such a union.
The division? The government should issue civil-union licenses that could be referenced for legal/insurance matters. Churches should continue to perform marriages as they see fit. The churches' determinations would not affect couples' legal standing in terms of taxes, benefits, etc.
seeking to have his marriage annulled after discovering that his Indonesian wife of 19 years had been born a man. … said that he and his wife had decided not to have children because he had two by his previous marriage and she fooled him by pretending to menstruate, using sanitary towels, "to conceal the truth". … "Even during sex, I never noticed anything."
Google is set to begin covering a cost that gay and lesbian employees must pay when their partners receive domestic partner health benefits…. The increased pay is largely to compensate these workers for an extra tax that heterosexual married couples do not pay. [Root of the problem: IRS defines marriage because of income tax, therefore putting the government in charge of religion, in violation of the First Amendment. Related webwork: Freedom to Marry]
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday he supports gays being able to marry but believes states, not the federal government, should make the decision.
At a press conference addressing Carrie Prejean's disputed title in the Miss USA competition, pageant owner Donald Trump compared Prejean's stated views on gay marriage to Obama's. "It's the same answer that the president of the United States gave," Trump said. "She gave an honorable answer. She gave an answer from her heart." In her own remarks moments later, Prejean echoed Trump's statement, telling reporters: "The president of the United States, the secretary of state, and many Americans agree with me in this belief."
having a conscientious partner may actually be good for one's health. ... study, of adults over age 50, also found that women, but not men, get an added health benefit when paired with someone who is conscientious and neurotic....
the fifth state to approve the practice and moving New England closer to allowing it throughout the region. New Hampshire legislators were also poised to send a gay marriage bill to their governor, who hasn't indicated whether he'll sign it. If he does, Rhode Island would be the region's sole holdout.
Two identical twin brothers have married two identical twin sisters in a joint wedding ceremony in China. The two couples, from Binhai town, look so much alike that members of their own family struggle to tell them apart. ... "We really can't distinguish who's who, so we ask them to name themselves before speaking," said Zhang Shengzhong, the father of the twin sisters. And the grandmother of the twin brothers admitted: "If I can't tell the difference, I just answer them with a smile without speaking."
Maine's senate passed a bill on Thursday that could make the northeastern U.S. state the fifth in the country to allow gay marriage, but the lower chamber and governor have yet to approve it.
Iowa counties begin processing same-sex marriage applications Monday and the first gay weddings could happen within hours, but details of just what changes and benefits the ceremonies will bring are still being untangled. ... "It's all about me having the legal right to protect my family, and it's about my daughters being able to grow up knowing that their family is absolutely as valid as any other family...."
"We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."
Gov. David Paterson introduced a bill Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage in New York, comparing the effort to the fight for the abolition of slavery. Paterson, whose job approval rating has plunged below 30 percent, is making a political gamble that he can ride the momentum of other states that have recently allowed the practice, and it's unclear how the legislation will play in New York.
An eight-year study of 218 couples found 90 percent experienced a decrease in marital satisfaction once the first child was born.
The National Organization for Marriage, a key backer of the successful campaign against same-sex marriage in California, is launching a $1.5 million ad campaign to "energize" gay-marriage opponents in key states "by making the case that it will impinge directly on their own lives."
Here is a listing of same-sex marriage license laws in the U.S.
The Iowa Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling Friday finding that the state's same-sex marriage ban violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian couples, making Iowa the third state where marriage is legal. In its decision, the court upheld a 2007 district court judge's ruling that the law violates the state constitution. It strikes the language from Iowa code limiting marriage to only between a man a woman.
ELDORADO, Texas — It was a year ago that the outside world got its first glimpse beyond the battered green gate of the YFZ Ranch. And the view was mesmerizing: Women in pioneer-style dresses, their hair swept up in braids. Men who married multiple times — sometimes, it was said, to underage girls. Children snatched by authorities from their mothers, for fear that they might be abused. ... all but one of the 439 children who were taken away in one of the largest custody cases in U.S. history have returned to their families. About two-thirds are back at the ranch ... The documents obtained by The Associated Press offer a window into an industrious, prayerful community in which marriage was considered a mandatory ticket to heaven, where legal marrying ages are secondary to divine matches ordained by Jeffs. But more than anything else, these papers testify to a simple truth: At the YFZ Ranch, Warren Jeffs controlled everything.
The Vermont Senate has given its final stamp of approval to a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry in the state. Lawmakers passed the measure on Tuesday in voice vote with no debate. Now the issue moves to the House, where the a committee has scheduled a week's worth of testimony on the bill.
"Once again I have to ask, if marriage is a 'sacred,' that is, religious institution, why in the name of the Constitution is the government in the marriage business at all?" -- Robert Finch
The central issue in the legal battle over Proposition 8 is whether the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage is a state constitutional amendment, which can be passed by initiative, or a constitutional revision, which can't. From another perspective, the question is whether the scope of a minority group's rights in California should be decided by the voters or the courts.
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